All Time

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

ANDONG: 03 - Masks, All Masks!

Should masks be fascinating?
The only thing that they ever do to me is freak me out, which is not cool. So
why even bother dropping by the Mask Museum and dropping another 2,000 won for
admission? Bus. They have a schedule which they do follow, and ours was not due
for another hour. Instead of loitering in the traditional eatery where we had
lunch and deprive other tourists of seats guaranteed to fulfill their
gastronomic fantasies, we decided to just head out and see what the museum has
to offer. It was indeed a learning experience.

As the museum’s name would
suggest, the place is full of masks. Why masks? All I know is that aside from
the Queen Elizabeth II visit, Andong is also famous for its mask festival which
happens around September every year, if I am not mistaken. Well, I am mistaken.
My arrival date is mistaken. It would have been cool to see a traditional
Korean festival. Oh well, let the museum fill out that touristy void for now.
Moving on and if I remember it correctly, the museum has five or six chambers,
each specializing in a certain part of the world and their masks.

Apparently, masks are
well-rooted in the history not just of this Korean region, but all over the
world. Used for rituals, masks serve a way to communicate with higher level
beings, or at least demonstrate how it is done through cultural presentations
such as the Mask Festival mentioned earlier. Each mask in that museum had its
own story, but since we only had an hour, we avoided the burden of being
well-versed in this unique area of anthropology. Leave that to the experts, we
just concern ourselves with the visual fascination that staring at those masks
entailed.

Korean masks are a bit new to
me, but they seem a bit similar to those seen in the east, namely China and
Japan. Other than those, my only exposure to masks are through watching
Hollywood slasher flick, which means my concept of them is limited to that
ghastly long-chinned mask used by the killer in Scream, and that of Jason (or
was that Freddy?) which I think was an ice hockey goalie mask of some sort. The
masks in this museum are more colorful though, bordering from simple to the
insufferably intricate. Whoever the curator is obviously made his homework
well. Clap, clap!

I was a bit disappointed
because there were only eight masks from the Philippines, which are displayed
in either gallery 3 or 4. Damn memory gap! Most of them are wooden, and the
info card says that they were used to ward off evil spirits. It seems Indonesia
beats us in the masks department, but then again they owe it to their rich
Hindu tradition, I suppose. This argument is pointless anyway. This is not the
Southeast Asian Games.

What else do you find inside?
Well, as mentioned, the galleries are divided per region. The last one on the
top floor is reserved for the Americas and the Pacific islands. And then there
is one for Italy’s masks, which were the only representatives for Europe, that
which they use for Mardi Gras or something. The funny thing is that it shares
its gallery with Halloween masks. Yes, Halloween. They have Halloween masks!
Nonetheless, I find those Italian masks to be the creepiest among the bunch.
They all look sinister to me.

I am not aware of the opening
hours, perhaps you could refer to the video for that, maybe I was able to
capture it there. Anyway as I always suggest, avoid visiting at night, if
possible in the case of this museum. Nothing. There are a handful of life-sized
statues in there which come alive at night to chase you down the halls. Do not
say I did not warn you! Pardon me and my hyperactive imagination.

And so, to sum it all up. What
happened after Hahoe Folk Village? Hamid and I took the same bus going back.
The trip is around 40 minutes on a standing bus. The place is quite popular
even for domestic tourists so expect the bus to be standing room only. You have
to make room for them ajumma’s who
could no longer tolerate long distance travel so yeah, give up your seat, dude.

As for Andong the city, the
downtown area seems to be compact with everything within walking distance. It
has that little town feel but a stark contrast is present thanks to the shops
and their facades’ rather modern architecture, not to mention the water streams
that were in construction when I was there. I could only imagine how cool
everything would look like, even in a literal sense, once they install benches
next to a running stream on those streets. I think they are even applying
cobblestones on some of them. Now that would be a good shopping and relaxation
experience!

After the language video and
some catching up on Smallville’s season eight via Hamid’s laptop, it was time
to bid goodbye. I took a bus to the main bus terminal. An almost four hour bus
ride to Incheon station followed, and then more than an hour of Incheon rail to
the airport. By 1 AM I was already trying to find a spot for sleeping at Spa on
Air. Waking up at around 6 AM the next morning, I took all the necessary
measures to prepare for my flight, which was on a half-empty Manila-bound Cebu
Pacific plane. I will not say goodbye, South Korea. See you again. Definitely!